Welcome to the Agency
If there’s one industry that looks great on screen, it’s the advertising industry. From Good Neighbor Sam to Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? to Mad Men, the industry and its focus on graphics and splashy verbiage exude cool. This week we focus on Fort Worth’s advertising/public relations and marketing industry from the Addy Awards to a move by an agency to a new home.
Meanwhile, let’s have some fun.
Here are some examples from the medium on the medium’s messenger:
From Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
Tony Randall as Rock Hunter: Of course, the great thing about television is that it lets you see events live as they happen, like old movies from 30 years ago.
Joan Blondell as Violet: Don’t tell me you’ve gone and flipped for Rock? Well, I’ll be a writer’s subplot. You have.
From Mad Men (2007-2015)
Jon Hamm as Don Draper: Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. You know what happiness is? Happiness is smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing, it’s okay. You are okay.
Don Draper: The reason you haven’t felt it is because it doesn’t exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You’re born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.
Don Draper: If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.
John Slattery as Roger Sterling: My father used to say this is the greatest job in the world except for one thing: The clients.
Roger Sterling: Well, I gotta go learn a bunch of people’s names before I fire them.
Roger Sterling: Sunkist, Carnation, the avocado people. My biggest job in these meetings is keeping them from saying “golly” too many times.
We’ve enjoyed talking to the industry this week. We hope you’ll have some fun reading what we’ve uncovered. Feel free to Tweet about it.
Robert Francis
Editor
Fort Worth Business Press